1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of operating platforms for mobile phones and personal data systems and more particularly to a connector system to be employed with generic mobile information devices for a wireless communications card with a miniaturized form factor which is insertable into the mobile information devices to accommodate desired wireless communication functions.
2. Related Art
Current design time-to-market for mobile phone and personal information devices is extended due to current design philosophy and practice. Turn-around time for a typical complete handset design is about 9 months. Currently terminal vendors need to spend significant amount of resources on basic wireless communication functions and cannot concentrate on truly value-added design works, such as industrial design and software applications. It is also difficult to develop multiple models with significant differences based on a common printed circuit board (PCB) platform. Traditional wireless devices using discrete solution have difficulty supporting multiple band or modes such as GSM, CDMA, 3G. Discrete chipset solutions consume at least three times more PCB space. There are significant financial and technical barriers of entry for new companies without significant resources, or established companies without wireless expertise.
Currently there are some vendors selling modules that can provide wireless communication functions in a particular wireless technology. However these modules are large in size with proprietary interfaces. These modules require significant amount of vendor integration. Alternatively, certain prior art systems are simply modularizing wireless modem functions. Prior art systems for removable cartridges providing communications elements such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,947 to Tom provide some flexibility in applications design; however, such systems were bulky and lacked packaging and connector innovations required for practical application of such systems.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/308,221 filed on Mar. 13, 2006 entitled MINIATURIZED FORM FACTOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS CARD FOR GENERIC MOBILE INFORMATION DEVICES, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as though fully set forth, provides a system that can save RF tuning, debugging and certification thereby reducing design lead time significantly. This system provides the ability to integrate hardware, software, utilities and drivers which will allow true plug and play functionality for end users or mobile information device design houses. The desired functional capability is provided through an insertable card to eliminate the requirement for a separate CPU or applications processor in the mobile information device and additionally, provides a complete modem solution that will support multi-mode and multi-band.
To enhance the space savings and weight reduction to permit more compact portable devices and flexible designs and integrate chipset and passive components into a common module it is desirable that the system be provided with integral connector systems having standard interfaces and indexing for mating to PC boards within the mobile information device platforms and to properly index and mate the miniaturized form factor card. It is desirable that the connector in such a common module be employed to reduce the total number of solder joints, thus increasing the reliability of the final product. It is desirable to provide a connector system to simplify the currently complex design work for wireless enabled device into much simpler product integration and to provide capability for wireless communications card to be installable in generic mobile information devices by an end user.